A Rotation of Voices
by Aviaq
Summary: UPDATED: FINAL CHAPTER About the secret memories hidden in Aang's spirit. A four chapter story about his recent past lives...and how they call to him on clear nights when he sleeps. Epic struggles, timeless friendships, buried memories of faces
1. The Red Feather

**A Rotation of Voices**

In the gentle glow of the moon, a flying bison's shadow swiftly flies over the ocean.

The avatar child sleeps while his two companions are awake watching him as he stirs.

"Aang's dreaming" Katara whispers as she smiles down at the boy. "Look, his eyes are still moving under his eyelids."

"Hehe, probably about taking rides on more crazy wild animals." Sokka laughs.

"Shhh! Don't disturb him!" Katara whispers sharply to her brother.

Little do these two know what an avatar is able to dream of in the deepest state of sleep.

Old memories, long forgotten are suddenly remembered.

Like the bones of ancient creatures that wash on the beach after a rainy day…centuries after they had actually drifted below into the ocean…

* * *

- _THE RED FEATHER._

_ Those two little children had been following him all day and would not stop. From the end of the village to the old grove next to the field they kept on going, chirping and tagging along like baby ducks. He finally lost patience and turned around.  
_

"_Guys, would you stop bothering me?" The sixteen-year-old boy asks. "I have to train before the sages take me to leave for the temple next week"_

"_C'mon Roku." eight-year-old Haozen requests to him "Just for old time's sake?"_

"_Yeah, can you do one last trick for us before you leave? Pretty PLEEEESE?" Haozen's little cousin, Hikari tugs at Roku's red robe._

"_Aw, alright. Just this LAST TIME, or I'll never hear the end of it." Roku smiles as he gives in._

"_YAYYY! Show us the best bending trick you know." Hikari claps. "Make it good!"_

_Roku pulls up his sleeves. "Okay, here's something that I hope even the sages will be impressed with." _

"_Ooh ooh! Are you going to make a tornado of fire like last time? Or punch your most powerful fireball into the air until it reaches the sky?" Haozen asks with anticipation._

"_Something a little different."_

_  
Roku takes a red feather out of his pocket. He looks and walks over to a nearby thorn bush with sharp and pointed ends. Roku parts the outward prickes, and places the delicate feather deep inside of the tangle of thorns carefully. The young firebender then walks in circles around the bush, as if slowly taking in its form and shape._

_What is he doing? The two children wonder._

"_Hey, have you two ever thought that fire is something that could not only be bended, but also be listened to? Something primal that could speak in words that only the person bending it could hear?" Roku says as he continues slowly pacing around the thorn bush._

"_You sound like my grandpa." Haozen laughs. "What is this about? Aren't you gonna do your trick yet?"_

"_I mean think about it…" Roku says, still focused on the plant. "If you can listen to the fire and what it says, you can also make it do the most unusual things."_

"_Huh?" little Hikari cocks her head in confusion._

_  
It is then that Roku steps back, takes a deep breath and sets the bush on fire with a wave of his arm. The twigs begin to heat up, snap and crack. The flame feeding on them so rapidly that they disintegrate. A dead smoky wooden smell begins to fill the air as the thorns shrivel and shrink away, their shadows waving in the fire like sharp black fingers curling. _

_Haozen and Hikari do not say a word. They look at Roku's stern face and see that his eyes are closed and his lips are moving. _

_He is chanting to the fire. _

_It burns itself out after several minutes. There is nothing left but a pile of black ash and bits of burned wood. _

"_Was that it?" Haozen asked, disappointed. "I'm sorry Roku, but that wasn't very… special."_

"_That was kind of dumb." Hikari pouts._

_  
Roku simply grins. He bends down to Hikari and whispers in her ear, and points to the pile of ash. Hikari makes a funny face, walks over to the pile and sticks her hand into it. She digs around for a while, then…her eyes widen in disbelief at what she takes out._

_The red feather._

"_IT DIDN"T GET BURNDED!" Hikari exclaimed, her eyes sparkling._

_Haozen's jaw drops. "B-But..B-But." He stutters. "How, did you…how could it stil…Is that feather magic or something?"_

"_I made sure that the feather was completely untouched by the flame." Roku explains. "I told you that if you can listen to what fire says, you can make it do the most unusual things. Here, you and Haozen can keep the feather, to remember me by… since I'll be gone for a long time."_

_Hikari looks up at him, anxiously._

"_Roku…why are you leaving the village to go with the sages?" She asks, in bit of a sad tone._

"_I don't know, but they say it's about something very important." He answers, a little bit worried._

"_Will you come back?" Haozen's asks him._

"_I'll try to. Don't you guys worry about me…" Roku says, patting both of their heads._

_The two little children try not to cry as they watch their dearest friend leave them._

_

* * *

_

_Next:_

_Chapter 2: THE GIRL IN GREEN_


	2. The Girl in Green

_Chapter 2:_

_-THE GIRL IN GREEN_

_The serene calm of the cool autumn afternoon is interrupted as a nine-year-old bursts into her house. She swings the wooden door open, causing a potted plant to get knocked over. Dirt is spilled all over the floor._

"_Kyoshi!" her grown older sister, Onya reprimands " Why must you be so noisy! What in the world is the matter with you--" _

_She stops when she sees that the little girl's face is dripping with tears, her green dress torn and streaked with dirt._

"_What have you done this time?" Onya puts her hands on her hips._

_Kyoshi does not answer, she rubs her nose and looks at her feet. One of her slippers is missing...  
_

_The woman rolls her eyes. Onya prepares a wet cloth and prepares to wipe the girl's dirty face._

"_Stupid…idiot boys! Why do they have to be so mean, Onya?" Kyoshi asks her sister._

_Onya heaves out a tired sigh. "Didn't I tell you to just ignore them? Most boys your age are just like that."_

"_But WHY?" Kyoshi stamps her feet in frustration. "I've had it. Sanji is always picking on me."_

"_Ohhh, I see what this is really about…" Onya cannot help but laugh. ""That kid is probably just afraid of you…or maybe it is because he has fondness for you"_

"_Stoppit! That's not funny!" the little girl starts to blush. She squirms uncomfortably as Onya continues to wipe her grime off._

"_Boys will always be boys." Onya explains. "No use getting into fights with them, better to outsmart them and make them see that you will not be put down, right? Some people would not like to think so, but it isn't for men to decide how us girls make of our destiny."_

_Kyoshi cheers up, and gives a smile to her older sister. _

"_I'm glad you taught me that. I promise to train harder, I'll make you proud!" The young warrior says with determination._

_Onya watches her little sister, and silently knows that being a sibling to this special girl has already made her proud enough._

"_I'm just glad those boys didn't hurt you or anything. Because if they ever did, I'll-- " _

_Kyoshi giggles "I'm fine, my training with the teacher has paid off…but I think I got carried away and…"_

"_Kyoshi…Oh no, you didn't. DID YOU!" Onya asks nervously._

"_Well you wanted me to stand up to them before, so that's what I did…." The girl in green tosses her head proudly._

_Meanwhile, in the other side of the village, four little boys grumpily trudge home, covered in bruises and mud. Their pride injured along with their aching limbs._

"_This stinks! Sanji, I can't believe you let the four of us get beaten up by one freaky girl." One boy whines._

"_Shut up!" Sanji grumbles._

_

* * *

next:_

_Chapter 3: Heart of the Beast_


	3. The Heart of the Beast

_Chapter 3:_

_HEART OF THE BEAST_

_It is cruel and deathly cold night. The wasteland is howling with a freezing wind. The man sits in his small igloo, praying that the spirits of the snowstorm still have mercy on him.  
_

"_But just like the shaman had said; the blizzard has mercy on no one." Avatar Onsui whispers sadly to himself.  
_

_It has been more than three weeks that Onsui has been stranded and lost in this part of the wasteland. His hope of finding his way out of the blizzard had already been used up._

_There is no more food. There is no more meat._

_And although he has already mastered his third element, he knows it would be fatal to use up his remaining energy to create warmth. So there is no fire either._

_He can already feel his insides whither, his breath weakening along with his body. A disturbing and frightening process has taken over. He has become dangerously gaunt._

_He must not let his eyes close, if he sleeps, he shall die._

"_I am the Avatar and I must not be weak, I must not fail" Onsui tells himself. But he can barely comprehend what those words mean to him anymore. _

_  
He knows he must go to the tribe in the mountains and give aid to their struggle. But it is too late. It is too far. The blizzard has now made sure of it. It is to end here._

_After 31 years, in all his battles, his travels, after all the people he had met all over the world, Onsui believes that his journey is to end in this desolate place. As it was the land of his birth, it is now to be the land of his death._

_After a final thought, Onsui gently awakens his one friend that had been with him through all this. _

_It is his animal guide; a large polar bear named Nanuk. An animal whose unbreakable loyalty has rivaled even the closest of Onsui's human friends._

_Nanuk had been kind enough to nestle next to Onsui to provide him extra warmth. But this creature was now in weakened state as well, and if he were to continue to stay there with Onsui, he would also surely starve._

"_Nanuk, p-p-please w-wake up." Onsui speaks to him in a hoarse, shivering voice. He strokes the black stripe that runs along the bear's forehead and white back. _

_The beast stirs and opens its eyes._

"_Nanuk, l-l-listen to me." Onsui says with tears in his eyes. "You sh-shouldn't stay here. You are st-till s-stronger than I am. You m-must…leave me here. You are n-no longer to be my animal guide. You may go to the w-wilderness and live as a wild thing once more...That is the only way that you will survive this b-b-blizzard."_

_The bear looks at his master. Nanuk's eyes widen knowingly._

"_You heard what I said. I know you understand, do not pretend that you cannot. Go, leave me here." Onsui says to the creature sternly._

_Nanuk shakes his head and lets out a low defiant growl._

"_STOP THAT! I AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU D-DIE HERE WITH ME!" Onsui yells to Nanuk, his voice beginning to break._

_It is then that the creature does something remarkable. The beast takes Onsui's hunting spear into his mouth and gives it to Onsui. Nanuk then slowly crouches, low on the ground, bowing to Onsui in a final submissive gesture._

"_Nanuk!" Onsui gasps with horror, realizing what his animal guide is allowing him to do._

"_NO! I cannot do that! I am …forever g-grateful that you offer yourself to me as food so that I may survive. But if I wanted to k- kill you for meat to feed myself, I would have done that a long time ago! It is your life that should be spared, not mine. How c-could you even offer that?"_

_Nanuk lifts his head and growls once more.  
_

"_I-It isn't that I wish to die here!" Onsui shouts, clutching the spear. "But y-you are not just any mere b-beast to kill for meat. You…are my friend. We have b-been through t-too much together. You have been guiding me in my role as the Avatar, and it would be wrong to murder you like this. I CANNOT EAT YOU, NANUK! IF WE ARE TO DIE, WE MUST DIE TOGETHER!"_

_Nanuk lets out a violent roar. _

"_Nanuk…P-Please, do not f- force me to do this." Onsui says in a sickened tone._

_The beast bows down once more, stubbornly refusing to move. Nanuk lets out a sad sounding howl…as if to say goodbye._

"_Nanuk…no." Onsui grits his teeth. He cannot believe what is about to happen._

_

* * *

_

_It is two weeks later that a warrior watching from his village post, spots the form of a tall beast striding towards him. _

_Squinting his eyes, he realizes that it is not a beast, but a man. It is a man wearing the white pelt of a slain polar bear._

"_Avatar Onsui! You have finally arrived to help us!" He shouts joyously. "We thought you had died in the wasteland! I cannot believe you actually made it through that unholy blizzard!"_

_Onsui answers in a spiritless voice. _

"_I only survived because of a sacrifice made to me by my friend. I am here to fulfill my duty as the Avatar so not to waste that sacrifice or that friendship."_


	4. The Last Migration

_Chapter 4:_

_THE LAST MIGRATION_

_YiLin silently watches the young man from the Earth Kingdom._

_For years, the man would travel from his village all the way to the small Airbending temple where she trained. He came every three days, always coming to give offerings and to ask for blessings from the elder Priestesses._

_Ever since YiLin was a little girl, she would follow that green-clad young man as quietly as possible, tiptoeing around the temple hallways. She did not care that he had been nineteen and she was merely seven._

_Each time he saw her, he would always smile, and give her a folded paper crane._

_And each time she had received one from him, she feels as if she could fly._

_Ten years have passed and many things have not changed._

_She continues to watch him now. He still smiles at her as if she were only a friend and a child. _

_She is too afraid to bid him farewell, or to tell him of how her heart longs for him._

_Not only because he has already has eyes for another,_

_Or because she is an Airbender priestess, sworn only to the strict order of the Eastern Air Temple._

_But also because she is the Avatar. _

_Born to bear the sacred burden of duty as many others have before her._

_She knows she must forget her own personal feelings if she is to live up to that role._

_Especially now that she and thousands of other Air Nomads are to make their exodus from one temple to the next._

_She must force herself to forget this man._

"_We are to leave soon." YiLin's elderly teacher, Eunhee says to her suddenly from behind._

"_Master Eunhee!" YiLin turns around, startled. "I was just…taking one last walk around the gardens."_

_The stern old priestess narrows her eyes at her student. But she gives out a sigh. "You may bid him farewell."_

_YiLin looks up, not quite sure what her teacher means._

"_It is alright. I will allow you say goodbye to Genshu." Eunhee says_

_YiLin's eyes begin to sparkle. She bows humbly to her superior, and knows what she must do now. She quickly runs up to her Temple quarters._

_A few moments later, in the gardens, Genshu feels a gentle gust of wind blow on him from above. He looks up. _

_Something unusual seems to be happening. He sees that there is what looks like a large flock of silent, colorful birds riding on that breeze. _

_One of these strange 'birds' lands at his feet. He picks it up._

_It is actually a paper crane._

_Genshu, his mouth gaping open, looks up above again. Hundreds more are 'flying' in a beautiful formation, as though they are being guided by the wind itself. As though they are alive._

_He sees that they are coming from the upper northern tower from the temple. From the tower's window, he sees that it is YiLin, his young friend, who is actually doing this. _

_She kept all of the cranes I had given her all this time? Genshu thinks to himself, astounded. How many of these did she actually keep?_

_YiLin continues to bend and blow gusts of air around the paper creations as they fly out of her window. Then, in the sky, the now thousands of paper cranes slowly begin to form the characters;_

"_I will not forget you"_

_Genshu sees the message. He smiles up to YiLin, and waves to her._

"_Good Luck, YiLin!" Genshu shouts in a cheerful voice._

_From high up in her window, she solemnly bows back to him in respect._

_He will always think of me as child, nothing more. YiLin thinks to herself with a heavy heart._

_The delicate cranes continue travel off far to the foggy mountains, away from the temple, until they are too far to be seen. They ride on the breeze, moving less like flying birds and more like fallen, dead leaves. _

_The next day at sunrise, Master Eunhee approaches YiLin in her quarters. The superior looks at the young airbender. YiLin now has dark circles under her now reddish eyes, as though she had been crying all night up to now._

"_Listen to me, I understand that you are also a young woman with your own human feelings." Her superior explains. "But if you expect to maintain your oath to our order AS WELL as being the avatar, you must not give in so easily to your personal attachments. It is naïve and selfish."_

_YiLin lowers her head in shame and wipes her eyes. _

"_People you love may come and go." Eunhee continues "But the actions and decisions a person makes can have lasting consequences. More than that, you already know that you are no ordinary person. You cannot afford to think about unimportant things."_

_YiLin cannot help feeling that this has come off as more of an order, rather than comforting advice. But deep inside she knows Eunhee is right. She positions herself on the floor and bows low to her Master. _

"_I understand all of that. I apologize for carrying on like this and wallowing in such petty emotions. It will make sure it doesn't happen anymore."_

"_Good." The elder woman turns away abruptly. "Now hurry and pack your things. We are to reach the Grand Eastern AirTemple by the next full moon to complete your training."_

_The young priestess waits for the woman to walk away before she whispers under her breath;_

"_I know it might be naïve and selfish but…those I care about mean more to me than my duty as the Avatar. I cannot lie about that to myself." _

_YiLin then takes something out from her cabinet. It is the first paper crane that Genshu had given her when they first met. It is the only one that YiLin wishes to keep, and cannot bear to let go._

_She quietly puts it in her pocket._

_

* * *

_

"Aang? Are you awake?" Katara nudges Aang's shoulder

"Yeah, I've been awake for a while now" He yawns sleepily

"Are you okay?" She asks him.

"Don't worry, Aang." Sokka says confidently, holding Appa's reins. "I'm pretty sure we'll get to the North Pole in only about a week. See that island down there? According to the map, that's the checkpoint saying that it's coming close."

Katara takes the map and looks at it closer.

"Sokka, are you talking about _this _"checkpoint" right here?" Katara gives Sokka a tired look and points to a tiny green splat on the parchment.

"Yup! That's the checkpoint." Sokka grins.

"This ISN'T a checkpoint! It's not even land!" Katara shouts in exasperation. "It's a piece of FOOD that you probably dripped on the map!" She flicks it off with her fingernail.

"Oh…um…ok. I guess that makes it about **two weeks** away from the North Pole instead. My fault. " Sokka says, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"How about I try reading the map from now on?" Katara suggests "That way we won't get lost because of your bits of fruit or crumbs of chewed-up bread."

"Jeez, it was just a mistake, OKAY?" Sokka yells back at his sister, rolling his eyes. He tugs at the reins so hard it makes Appa growl and jerk sideways, Momo wakes up and screeches in irritation.

Aang cannot help but giggle at the lively scene. Despite their usual quarrelling, their steadfast company makes him feel the comfort of … not being alone.

_Katara, Sokka, Momo and good old Appa. My only friends right now. Are they always going to be with me like this? _

He tries not to think about the impending danger from the future, or of what could happen if he were to lose them someday. Or worse, if they were to ever leave him for any other reason.

Aang suddenly gets a familiar but sick feeling deep within his stomach. A feeling that seems more and more vivid. As if he's remembered losing people he cared about from not just 100 years ago, but dear souls from even older times…such a distant yet vivid feeling.

_I feel like I remember people I haven't thought of in such a long time…was I dreaming about them? How many people have I already lost…?_

"Hmph, well thanks to our master navigator over there, it'll take even longer to get back in the right direction." Katara heaves out a tired sigh and settles down next to Aang. He smiles at her.

"Well, anyway, don't worry. We haven't gone too far off track." Katara says in a more concerned tone "I know you're getting worried about mastering all the elements in time. "

"It's okay, even if that does also make me worried. " Aang says as he looks at the moon "You guys are the ones who are here with me _now_, and that's enough for me."

"_Don't you guys worry…" the boy in the red robe smiles._

"_I'll make you proud!" The little girl says with determination._

"_I will not waste your friendship." The man had promised._

_The priestess whispers under her breath "I know it might be naïve and selfish but…those I care about mean more to me than my duty as the Avatar."_

**The End.**


End file.
